The Gas Relationship between the Baltic States and Russia – politics and commercial realities

Gas markets in the Baltic countries are small, disconnected from the rest of Europe and, despite many plans for diversification over the past 20 years, remain entirely supplied by Russian gas. Not only is Gazprom the only supplier to the region but it also has substantial equity in all of the Baltic gas companies. This has created periodic political problems between the Baltic countries and Gazprom which resurfaced in 2012 following decisions by these countries to unbundle transmission networks, and anti-trust proceedings against Gazprom by European competition authorities following Baltic complaints about excessive gas prices. Agnia Grigas’ study provides a detailed survey of Baltic gas relations with Russia in the post-Soviet era, showing the inter-relationships between political and commercial considerations and how these have differed between countries and changed over time.